We append a summary of the principal islands, capes, mountains, and rivers of Europe. In the summary of the rivers, the ocean or sea into which each river flows is named. SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL ISLANDS. Aland, Baltic. British Islands, N. Atlantic. Candia, S. of Greece. Corsica, S. of Sardinia. Fünen, W. of Zealand. Greek Isles, Archipelago. Negropont, Archipelago. The Balearic Isles, E. of Spain. SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL CAPES. Matapan, S. of Morea. St. Vincent, S. of Portugal. SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL MOUNTAINS. Alps, N. of Italy. Vesuvius (volcano), Naples. SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RIVERS. William. The new secretary of the Mechanics' Institution. Thomas. An unfit man for his office, I should judge, if he is accustomed to laugh at the mistakes of the members. William. Well, however that may be, I really fancy I shall never be able to speak correct English, for I suppose "he like reading" is wrong. Thomas. Certainly, it is not good English. William. And yet I have tried to correct what you term the errors of my bringing-up; and now, alas! I am as far off as ever. Thomas. No, by no means as far off as ever, if only because you are trying to get right; earnest effort never wholly fails; you are a little too impatient. Why, one thing you have overcome; you used to say "I speaks," and "they speaks." William. Yes, and I someway had got it into my head that by dropping the s I should put all right. Thomas. I have known others make a similar mistake. But come, I will endeavour to give you such instructions and explanations as shall make the case clear to you. Only observe that you must watch and suspect yourself, and you must never cease your self-questioning until you have rigidly applied and know that you habitually apply in practice that which you learn in study. For your comfort I may tell you that I know many persons who once spoke as ungrammatically as you do, nay, as you did, and who now both speak and write our language with neatness as well as strict accuracy. Let us begin. You know what a noun is? William. Yes, a noun is a name. Thomas. Exactly: the noun may be called the namer, for it is the part of speech which gives names to things, to all objects and realities, whether they are audible or visible, whether they are thoughts or feelings, whether in the outer world or in the mind. Every real object, and some that are unreal; everything known, conceived of, felt, or beheld, is called a noun; for every. thing must, for grammatical purposes, have a name. If an idea or a material object has no name, it has, as far as grammar is concerned, no existence. You know, also, what a pronoun is? William. Yes, a pronoun is a for-name, a word that stands in the place, or performs the work of a noun; thus, instead of saying "he like reading " Thomas. No, go no farther, please to correct yourself. Thomas. Learn to stop yourself when wrong. William. I will try. Thomas. Now, of these, which think you is "number one?” William. Well, I hope I am not selfish. Thomas. I mean no imputation; I dare say you are no more selfish than other people; however, is not "the great I" in all "number one?" At any rate, we may, in grammar, call I the first person; do you allow that? cases William. I suppose I must not object. Thomas. Let us then call you the second person. Next to two stands three, and, consequently, he and they may be termed the spoken to, he the person spoken of. Do you understand? Here third person. Mark, I represent the speaker, you the person you have the same facts set forth in instances :-- THE THREE PERSONS. RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. William. What do you mean by personal pronouns ?" Thomas. Pronouns that indicate or relate to persons. They are called personal to distinguish them from other pronouns; but with those other pronouns do not trouble your head just now. Turn back to the form. In that form you see the model of good English, or the pattern which you are to imitate. Mark, then, that he, the third person, is the only person that has its verb ending in s. It was, then, rather curious that you should have struck off the s there, instead of dropping it in the first person singular, and in all the persons of the plural. In Hampshire, they are so fond of the s, that they put it to all persons, except the second person singular; or if they make an exception, they do so where of all places they ought not, namely, in the third person singular. However, study what I have said-study and imitate the example I have given. One word more. I have used and not explained the word verb. 303 Divers. The more usual arrangement now is according to the number of eyes, one genus having but two, others six, and the greater number eight. Where do spiders live? Some in little cells, formed of the most delicate tissues; some in holes in the earth, or in wall crevices; many in our wine-cellars; a few in our libraries; hosts high in the air, or in tubes suspended from leaves; and not a small number in the water. The webs of the geometrical spider may be studied in almost every garden. Look at its work. See how beautifully the main threads radiate from the centre, and with what peculiar art the circular lines are secured to the radiating tissue. The repairs of this net demand incessant attention. Once a day the whole is examined, and the torn or loosened threads adjusted. Look closely at a net of the diadem (Epeira diadema) garden spider. You will recognise the creature by the gem-like whitish markings on the body, and the William. Oh, you need not explain that; the verb, I know, is dark bands and spines on the legs. Those threads which form the doer, the verb represents action; for instance, love is a verb. the spirals are more glutinous than the fine but stronger Thomas. Yes; give me some others. lines radiating from the centre, where the diadem takes his William. Well, write is a verb, so is strike, and think, and sentinel-post. Take a magnifying-glass, and a multitude of run, and stop, and shout. fine globules may be traced along the spiral threads. These Thomas. Enough, enough. Now study and strive to apply constitute a series of fastenings by which the circular lines are these instructions. William. Cannot you give me some instances to correct? Thomas. I do not think the proper way to teach you good English is to put before you instances of bad English; as, however, you are accustomed to these blunders, you can hardly be misled by them; probably you may, in many instances of bad English, recognise some old friends, from whose company I advise you to separate yourself now and for ever. Here, how ever, are some examples of first bad, and secondly good English; correct the former, and parse the latter. William. Parse, what is that? Thomas. Give the person and number of each instance. Bad English to be corrected and avoided. I gives; they gives; you gives; thou gives; he give; we gives; they runs; he run; William cough; William and Mary coughs; why does they laugh? They does not laugh; I does very well; they does badly; Henry ride well; do Henry ride well? Sarah sing sweetly; the Sunday scholars goes to church; the curate read (present) the lessons impressively? do the clerk pronounce distinctly? you eats like a sloven; they drinks too much. Good English to be parsed and imitated. The girl sings charmingly; the dogs bark; the hen clucks; the wind whistles; the storm rages; the tempest hurries on; you love reading; my father and mother go to church every Sabbath; how will the choristers sing? do the boys sing well? the girls have a beautiful voice; thou singest out of tune; he keeps time very well; I praise diligent scholars; I entreat you to remain here; do you wish me to learn Latin? good boys love learning; here, father is coming; be runs after the hare; hares have swift feet; does he love money? be who loves money is not wise; he learns English; does he learn Latin? they learn German, and you, I hear, learn Italian. RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. THE SPIDER.-PART I. As there are about 1,200 species of known spiders-one genus (Epera) containing above sixty-a large volume would be required even to describe the more remarkable families. We can, therefore, only mention in this and a future paper some of the most important facts connected with the structure, works, and habits of spiders. These animals are no longer classed with insects, from which they differ in four particulars, having simple eyes instead of compound, eight legs in place of six, no antennæ, and not undergoing the interesting metamorphoses so characteristic of insect life. All the families of spiders and scorpions are grouped together under the term Arachnida, derived from the Greek hame for a spider, apaxvn (a-rak'-ne). The word Araneidae inclades under it the true spiders only, and is from aranea, the Latin designation of the animal. Our common English name is derived from the old word spinder, a spinner. A more ancient descriptive term was attercop, signifying poison-head. We may note, in passing, that all spiders are distributed into two great sections-Pulmonaria, or those which breathe by pulmonary cavities; and Trachearia, or those which breathe by trachea, like insects. They are also sometimes classed according to their habits, as Hunters, Wanderers, Sedentaries, and gummed firmly to the radiating threads. The number of these globules, or web-ties, is surprising, a single net of the "diadem" spider having been found to contain above 87,000. The net of the Epeira apoclisa, a species allied to the garden diadem spider, usually consists of twenty-six radiating lines, and twenty-four rows of spirals. A large web of this kind has been calculated to contain 120,000 viscid globules. Besides the radiating and spiral threads, the observer will not fail to notice the main lines which extend beyond the geometrical work, and support the whole. These main threads are fastened at each end to leaves or twigs, and the radiating lines are then firmly secured to these supports. If one of these important lines be suddenly broken, the beautiful geometrical structure will collapse and become a ruin. The whole of such a net, with all its elaborate tracery of radiating and parallel lines, with its thousands upon thousands of points, is sometimes produced in about forty minutes. A web over a cannon's mouth, or across the opening in the poorbox, is therefore no proof that either has been long disused. The cannon may have been discharged yesterday, and yet a perfect web be over its mouth this morning. The reader will not forget that in this short time the spider not only arranges the fine geometrical lines, but also spins the whole from its own body. Let the reader examine carefully one of the fine threads, and then estimate its diameter. Does it not seem almost impossible to express in the fraction of an inch the thickness of that filmy tissue? But the fine line is not a single one, being composed of no less than 4,000 threads. Some of these wonderfully complex lines are themselves so fine that 4,000,000 twisted together would not exceed the thickness of an ordinary hair from the human head. Yet each one of these 4,000,000 tissues is itself composed of 4,000 single threads. The diameter, therefore, of one simple thread is but one sixteen thousand-millionth (100) part of the thickness of a human hair. If such a statement seems almost incredible, it is but one of the many mysteries abounding in the lower forms of life. The spinning machine is a wonder in itself. Under the hinder part of the spider's body a small depression may be seen. Look closer, and, rising from this hollow, there will be noted six small, tube-shaped bodies. Now use a microscope, and the observer may detect a great number of exceedingly fine openings on four of the tube-like bodies, about 1,000 on each. Through each of these 4,000 apertures the spider draws a fine thread, and all the 4,000 tissues, being hardened by the atmosphere, and twisted together, form one of the threads in the web. These four tube-like bodies are called spinnerets, the upper pair differing much from the lower in structure. Two kinds of threads are produced by this machine, at least in the case of the geometrical spider. The spirals of the web possess a gluey quality wanting in the radiating lines. But whence does the spider procure the delicate fluid which it draws through the pores of the spinnerets ? From six or eight reservoirs behind, in which a glassy substance is formed and stored up till required. A peculiar comb-like apparatus on one or more of the feet is used for twisting, carding, and adjusting the fine tissues as they issue from the pores of the spinneret wonderful animal-machine, with its system of reservoirs, spinning apparatus, and carding claws, is far more complex and admirable than the Lancashire self-acting "mules," which spin at one time a thousand threads of "twist," each resembling a cable when compared with the spun tissue of the spider. Some spiders never use their webs for nets. Thus the small gossamer spider turns her fine threads into a convenient bridge for passing from one plant to another, or uses them as a fairylike chariot to bear her aloft in the air. Sometimes a whole army of these minute creatures descends upon the fields, and even rivers, as in 1811, when the Tagus was covered for half a mile with the webs of the gossamers, which floated safely on their silvery rafts. These floating webs and spiders have settled on ships sixty miles from land, as when the rigging of the Beagle discovery vessel was covered with a cloud of gossamers in the estuary of the Rio de la Plata. None of our English webs approach in size some of the foreign kinds. The main lines of the Bermuda spider's web are sometimes suspended between trees sixteen yards apart, and "will snare a bird as big as a thrush." These long threads being emitted from the spi der's body, are carried by the wind to distant trees, or across rivers, and when one adheres to some substance the animal speedily crosses on the slender bridge, and effectually fastens its first line of suspension. If a webspinning spider be placed on a twig surrounded by water, it will generally contrive to escape by sending out its threads, and so forming a bridge. GEOMETRICAL SPIDER'S WEB. The building spider uses the soft webs for lining the cell which it has formed in the earth, and also for securing the movable trap-door at the entrance. This door is usually made of about fifteen layers of web, alternating with as many of fine earth. All these walls of web are curiously united to form a self-closing door-hinge. The water or diving spider (Argyroneta aquatica*) constructs a bell-shaped house, to which it retires with its captured prey. The residence is made waterproof by a gummy covering, air being carried down to the house by a bag formed of the same gummy substance fastened under the animal's body, where it sparkles, when filled with air, like a crystal globule. This clever spider fastens its home to water-plants by strong web-lines, which act as cables. FOOT OF SPIDER (MAGNIFIED). The diving spider is often found in Cambridgeshire and the adjoining counties, and appears to pass the winter in its aquatic house, which it completely fills with air as the cold season approaches. If by any accident the nest should then be tilted on one side so that the air escapes and water enters, the half-torpid inhabitant perishes. This spider is of a dark-brown colour, the legs armed with spines, and the body silky to the touch. The males of this species are larger than the females; but the contrary is the general law of the spider family. The red and white hairy brook spider of Cambridgeshire (Dolomedes fimbriatus) must not be confounded with the above-mentioned diver, though it runs readily over the surface of water. Some of the tube making spiders will even dive under the water, but their cells are never aquatic. Some spiders are called webless, but the females of these do, nevertheless, spin a substance for the cocoons, in which their eggs are preserved. Some of these also often spin a beautiful silky substance, with which they luxuriously line their cells, formed in old walls or in the earth. Most spiders have very clear notions of making themselves comfortable at home. Spiders, though clever, are not considered capable of much tender emotion. The females will sometimes even kill and eat the males, but often show a high degree of affection for their young. Some carry the cocoons, containing the eggs, about with them on all their journeys; others select a sheltered place on which the cradle can be safely slung during the winter. The careful manner in which the "eggcup" is covered over to protect the contents from the cold, is itself a witness to the spider's motherly forethought. These cocoons may often be seen on the inner walls of sheds and out-houses. A few spiders really wait upon and feed their young. The wolfspider, fierce as her name sounds, will fight to the death with the ant-lion in defence of her egg-cocoon. SPINNERET OF SPIDER (MAGNIFIED). In one peculiar respect spiders resemble crabs, being compelled repeatedly to change their coats. The first of these moults must be undergone by the young spider before it can even move. The creature is at first bound up like a mummy in a tight covering, confining all the limbs. Some house-spiders obtain nine changes of raiment in a life-time. It is at these seasons that the spider has its only chance of recovering the lost limbs which it often parts with so easily. The loss of a leg is not a trivial matter, as the want of the combing-claw may prevent the proper spinning of the webthreads. Sir Joseph Banks caught a spider having but three legs; he kept it for examination, and in about a month saw the old skin cast off, when the rudiments of five new lags appeared, which in three days grew to half the size of the old ones. In twenty-nine days after there was a second casting off the skin, when the five legs became still larger. It seems, therefore, that lost limbs are not completely restored at one moulting. The feet of most spiders exhibit a complex apparatus, fitted for walking on glass, running over water, along a ceiling, or moving over the fine web lines. The animal may indeed be said to take "hold with her hands." These feet should be carefully examined through a microscope to detect the fine brush and hooked arrangement by which, according to Mr. Blackwall, the spider clings to the smoothest surfaces. THE WATER SPIDER. The webs of the common house spider can not be called beautiful; but the mode in which one layer of tissue is interwoven with another, and the whole kept extended and in shape by the long supporting threads, will repay observation. The construction and arrangement of the cell to which these spiders carry their prey, and where they watch in constant readiness to dart forth, will furnish additional topics of interest. Argyroneta signifies a spinner of silver thread. LESSONS IN BOTANY.-XXIII. SECTION XLIV.-CINCHONACEE (continued). VALUABLE though coffee be, we now arrive at the consideration of a genus which is of far greater importance-the genus Cinchona. Coffee is only a luxury; were the supply of the article suddenly to fail, we could do without it, and our health would be none the worse; but what would the doctors do without cinchona bark-that precious medicine so valuable in agues and low fevers ? or even exceeding the length of the anthers; capsule oblong or lanceolated, much longer than the flowers; seeds elliptic, indented on the margins. It is this species which was first observed and described by the botanist Condamine. It is the same plant that was formerly described under the name of Cinchona micrantha, also cinchona of Lima (Fig. 184). Red cinchona (Cinchona nitida of Rinz and Pavon) has obovate lanceolate leaves, tapering off towards the base, glabrous on both sides, shining above, covered with a slight down below, not marked with furrows at the axillary juncture of the nerves; capCinchona bark and the potato tuber are the two most precious sule lanceolated, twice as long as it is wide; seeds imperfectly donations which America has presented to the world. One denticulated. The bark of this species is greyish-white extersecures us against famine, the other is almost a specific in certain nally; its chemical composition differs from that of the preceding febrile diseases. in the circumstance that besides cinchona and quina there exists in it a third alkali resembling these in general qualities, but containing more oxygen; it is termed aricina. White cinchona bark The various species of cinchonas are all evergreen trees or shrubs, inhabiting the valleys of the tropical Andes, between the tenth parallel of north and the nineteenth of south latitude, growing at elevations varying from 3,600 to 9,800 feet above the level of the sea. The trunk and larger branches are cylindrical, but the younger boughs are tetragonal, covered with the cicatrices which correspond to the presence of former leaves and stipules. The bark, which is bitter, contains two alkaloids, quina or quinine, and cinchona or cinchonine. The wood is white, becoming yellow with age; the leaves are opposed, entire, veined, petiolate; the cells of their epidermis being in many species swollen by a liquid, giving rise to small conical eleva tions. The petiole is short and semi-cylindrical; the stipules are caduceous, ordinarily free, cleft at the internal portion of their base by small lanceolated glands, which secrete a gummy-resinous matter; the flowers are disposed in terminal panicles; the corolla is white, roseate, or purple, and of a delicate odour; the pedicels are bracteolate at their base. 183. THE YELLOW CINCHONA (CINCHONA CALISAYA) :-a, ITS In commerce the varieties of cinchona bark are very numerous. They are all comprehended, however, under the four general heads of yellow, grey, white, and red bark. The tree which yields the Cinchona Calisaya (Fig. 183), or royal yellow bark, bears oblong, lanceolate, ovoid leaves, obtuse at their points, tapering off towards their base, marked with clefts at the bifurcation of the veins; filaments considerably shorter than the anther; capsule ovoid, scarcely equal in length to the flowers. The bark of this species is preferred to that of all others, on account of its containing more quina and less cinchona, the latter alkali not being so valuable as the former. The grey cinchona of Losca (Cinchona Condaminea of Humboldt and Bonpland) has lanceolate, oval, or pointed leaves, glabrous, and shining above, marked with furrows inferiorly corresponding with the bifurcation of the veins. The indentations of the calyx are triangularly pointed or lanceolate; filaments equalling VOL. IL is not employed in medicine. The discovery of the medical properties of cinchona bark is enveloped in great obscurity; all that we know about it for certain is this:-Before the year 1638-that is to say, 150 years subsequent to the discovery of America not even the Spaniards were acquainted with the febrifuge qualities of cinchona bark; but in this year, or thereabouts, the Countess del Cinchon, the wife of the Spanish viceroy of Peru, was cured of a violent intermit184 tent fever by drinking an infusion of the bark, and this led to its introduction into Europe. Were the natives themselves acquainted with it? Humboldt answers this question very positively in the negative, and refers the discovery to the Jesuit missionaries, who, being in the habit of tasting the bark of every tree they hewed down, at length discovered the precious febrifuge. Other authors of repute contend that the virtues of cinchona bark were known to the Indians long before the advent of the Spaniards; but the question again arises, how they first became acquainted with its properties? To account for this the ridiculous tale has been invented, that certain animals, while labouring under fever, happened to gnaw the bark of one of the cinchona trees, and were cured forthwith. Far more probable is it that some cinchona trees having been laid prostrate by tempests in a pool of water, and the latter becoming charged with the medicinal principle, some person labouring under fever drank of this water, was cured, and published the result. But however this may be, it is certain that the remedy first became popularised in Europe through the agency of the Count del Cinchon, viceroy of Peru, whose wife, as we have said, was cured of intermittent fever by its administration. The new remedy, however, was badly received in France and Italy. The faculty set their faces against it. Physicians who dared to prescribe its use were persecuted, and it was cr patronage of Louis XIV. which ultimately rendered in France. This monarch, suffering from intermittent fever, was cured by an English empiric named Talbot, by means of a secret remedy. This was no other than cinchona bark. Louis XIV. purchased the secret for the sum of 48,000 livres, and bestowed yearly a pension of 2,000 livres on the Englishman, besides giving him letters of nobility. Three years subsequently the remedy was published; it was a highly concentrated vinous tincture of cinchona bark. Cinchona trees grow in the densest forests of Peru. The task of discovering them, removing their bark, and conveying the latter to the place of export, is troublesome, difficult, and dangerous. In these forests there are no roads. Frightful precipices intersect the path of the cascarillero, or bark-gatherer, across which it is difficult to pass, even whilst unembarrassed by a load. So soon as the treasure of bark has been secured, these difficulties and dangers proportionately increase, so that the comparatively low price at which cinchona bark may be procured is in itself a matter of surprise. pieces. [oro.q.] X. OLD IRONSIDES. Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! And burst the cannon's roar; The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more! Her deck, once red with hero's blood, Oh better that her shattered hulk The lightning and the gale!-Holmes. The following piece is designed for practice in the "slow" utterance which characterises the tones of sublimity and awe. The "rate" of voice is not altogether so slow as will be required in some pieces; yet it retains much of that effect which cannot be given without slowness of movement and full pauses. The note, in the style of this lesson, continues low, although not so remarkably deep as in the preceding. The principal object of practice, in this instance, is to secure that degree of "slowness" which marks the tones of wonder and astonishment. XI. NIAGARA. Flow on for ever, in thy glorious robe Keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour Ah! who can dare And lull them to a cradle calm; but thou Ev'ry leaf, Thou dost make the soul To pierce thy vestibule, dost chain its step, In the dread presence of the Invisible, As if to answer to its God through thee.-Sigourney. The following specimen of descriptive humour requires the "lively movement" in its rate of utterance. The voice is, in this instance, accelerated beyond the rate of serious communication in any form, although it does not possess the rapidity which belongs to the excited style of lyric or dramatic poetry, in the most vivid style of humorous expression. This lesson combines, also, an exemplification of "moderate" force and "middle" pitch. The object in view in the practice of such exercises as this is to gain animation and briskness in utterance. A lagging or drawling tone is utterly incompatible with humorous delineation. Mere rapidity, however, will not succeed in imparting liveliness to style: the utterance must be slow enough to be distinct and spirited. XII. WOUTER VAN TWILLER. The renowned Wouter (or Walter) Van Twiller was descended from a long line of Dutch burgomasters, who had successively dozed away their lives and grown fat upon the bench of magistracy in Rotterdam, and who had comported themselves with such singular wisdom and propriety, that they were never either heard or talked of-which, next to being universally applauded, should be the object of ambition of all ages, magistrates, and rulers. His surname, Twiller, is said to be a corruption of the original Twijfler, which, in English, means Doubter-a name admirably descriptive of his deliberative habits. For, though he was a man shut up within himself, like an oyster, and of such a profoundly reflective turn, that he scarcely ever spoke except in monosyllables, yet did he never make up his mind on any doubtful point. This was clearly accounted for by his adherents, who affirmed that he always conceived every object on so comprehensive a scale, that he had not room in his head to turn it over, and examine both sides of it; so that he always remained in doubt, merely in consequence of the astonishing magnitude of his ideas! There are two opposite ways by which some men get into noticeone by talking a vast deal and thinking a little, and the other by holding their tongues and not thinking at all. By the first, many a vapouring, superficial pretender acquires the reputation of a man of quick parts; by the other, many a vacant dunderpate, like the owl, the stupidest of birds, comes to be complimented by a discerning world with all the attributes of wisdom. This, by the way, is a mere casual remark, which I would not for the universe have it thought I apply to Governor Van Twiller. On the contrary, he was a very wise Dutchman, for he never said a foolish thing; and of such invincible gravity, that he was never known to laugh, or even to smile, through the course of a long and prosperous life. Certain, however, it is, there never was a matter proposed, however simple, and on which your common, narrow-minded mortals would rashly determine at the first glance, but what the renowned Wouter put on a mighty mysterious, vacant kind of look, shook his capacious head, and having smoked for Pronounced Tweefler. |